The Polizia Stato has placed an order for two AW139 intermediate twin helicopters. The contract is partially funded by the EU FRONTEX programme aimed at supporting coordination and development of the European Union’s border management.

Also included in the contract is a comprehensive support and training package for crews and maintenance personnel plus options for an additional six helicopters to be exercised within late 2012/early 2013. These aircraft will be used to perform a range of duties including law enforcement, border patrol and other public utility applications. The two helicopters on order are expected to be delivered in the first half of 2013 and based at Pratica di Mare Airbase, close to Rome. [AW] Continue reading „Italy intends to buy helicopters through Frontex“

I feel totally obliged to speak about the things I witnessed with my very own eyes at the Police Station of Drapetsona, a close-to- the city- port neighborhood in Piraeus. I really have no idea of how I could possibly help my fellow men and so I expect each one of you to contribute to this by making widely known what I saw:

The immigrants who are being imprisoned on the basement of the Drapetsona Police Station have been beaten up by the policemen in order to discontinue their hunger strike. This behaviour made the 28-year -old Palestinian imprisoned refugee Ibrahim Farat to attempt suicide . These events has made us, the active citizens of Piraeus to organize a protest march to their support. Once we arrived outside the Police Station the Chief Officer Police appeared right in front of the Specially Equiped Police Forces called MAT- to tell us that a team of 5 individuals could go in and talk to the imprisoned immigrants. These immigrants have been detained simply because they could not provide employment documents as they have lost their jobs owing to the continuously deteriorating economic crisis or because they didn’t have entrance documents in the first place. They haven’t committed any other offence… Continue reading „Shocking testimony from the Police Station of Drapetsona“

Recognised refugees who fled the war in Libya are trapped in Tunisia. Although they have refugee status they have no rights and no protection. In one month the Choucha refugee camp is going to close. Without residence, without protection, without food they will have to ‘integrate’ into Tunisian society; a society which is already under pressure because of rapid social change and severe unemployment. They are on hunger strike outside the UNHCR in Tunis to demand resettlement in a safe country.

Protest outside the EU delegation in Tunis

On 22 April 2013, a delegation of 20 refugees, out of the 262 refugees who are left without resettlement to a safe country, protested in front of the EU delegation in Tunis. Banners said: “We request the international community to focus on our demand.” During the protest, Tunisian police came to the sit-in at the UNHCR to take away the tents. Continue reading „Refugee Right’s Protest in Front of EU delegation in Tunis, Tunisia“

Matthias Monroy
The „solidarity clause“ regulates the use of police, secret service and military means in case of a crisis within the EU

The EU Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy issued a proposal for the structuring of the so-called „solidarity clause” [1]. The document refers to article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) [2].

The EU institutions respectively the member states of the EU are to be bound to assist each other in case of a damaging event. This includes the use of police, secret service and military means. The „solidarity clause” determines that engagement in the territory of another state shall only be allowed at the „request of its political authorities”.

Political conflicts are not mentioned so far. However, the added definition of a „catastrophe” could also encompass uprisings, blockades or sabotage. The passage „any situation which has or may have an adverse impact on people, the environment or property” could be interpreted in this sense. Continue reading „EU secret service to be reinforced?“

The right-wing populist security policy of Sarkozy has not only led to the tightening of criminal law and law concerning foreigners. Nationalist and racist tendencies have continued to stabilize. The reorganization of police forces is primarily characterized by centralization and finds its political expression in a further expansion of repression. Whereas Sarkozy vociferously promised to “kärcher” with a high-pressure vacuum cleaner through the banlieue, the new “reforms” rely on the mute practical necessity of numbers: For some time now the neoliberal leadership of home affairs authorities is based on statistics of “successfully” solved crimes towards which future measures will be oriented. However, what is most “successful” here is the reproduction of power structures. Continue reading „French policing in times of austerity policy: Kärcher, statistics and Tarnac“

Every day a large group of men stands in front of the Embassy of Algeria waiting for transit papers. These are just a few of the over 100 Algerian migrants who recently signed deportation papers in Bulgaria demanding voluntary return to their country. A fifth of them are likely to fly back this spring. For the rest, the only certainty is the street. The Bulgarian authorities say no money is available for the deportation of Algerians until at least the summer of 2013. The Algerian consul in Sofia says he cannot help these men. Transit countries like Italy and Spain refuse to accept Algerian deportees on their territory for even half an hour to change planes.

When migrants like these men enter Bulgaria without documents, they are caught by border police and placed in the so-called migrant detention centers in Liubimets, Svilengrad and Busmantsi, Sofia. These prison houses starkly differ from what migrants expect to find in Europe. Breakfast there consists of two slices of bread and police beatings are regular occurrence. “This is really prison, like I’ve seen on TV,” says one of the men who wants to return to Algeria. Continue reading „Over one hundred Algerians in Bulgaria not allowed to return to their country“

A total of 31 delegates from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia attended a training seminar organised by the EU-funded Euromed Police III Project on “Forensic techniques and procedures” from 28 January to 1 March at the French National Police Academy in Saint-Cyr au Mont d’Or, near the French city of Lyon.

On the occasion of the World Social Forum which will be held in Tunisia during March 2013, we believe that the liberal reformist approach opted for by the organizing bureaucracy of the Forum will in no way lead to a revolutionary project for the people of the world. Even though the event is presented as an opportunity for the revolutionaries coming from all corners of the globe to meet, we deem that the ultimate objective, namely the collapse of the capitalist system, will not be taken into consideration

This Forum will take place in a highly critical time in the history of the world; social movements and uprisings are sweeping capitalism off its feet. Rage against the system does not recognize frontiers and geographical taxonomy of East and West. The so-called democratic states are as threatened by these risings as the worst dictatorships; the question to be examined is what are the driving forces of these revolts from Spain to Egypt and from Greece to Tunisia which are jeopardizing the capitalist states? Continue reading „Call from Tunisia to all revolutionaries of the world!“

Show your solidarity with the refugees from the Libyan war in Choucha camp!

Two years ago, on 19th March 2011, a coalition, led by France, Great Britain and the USA, started bombing Libya, and on 31st March, NATO officially declared war against the Gaddafi regime. Hundreds of thousands of people had to flee Libya, among them were many migrant workers and refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa, who were suspected of being of Gaddafi’s mercenaries. Tunisia left her borders open and accepted about half a million refugees. Most of them were accommodated in private houses, however a few thousands were placed in Choucha camp. It is situated in a desert-like region close to the Libyan border, and was opened by the UNHCR at the end of February 2011. At times it was hosting more than 20.000 people (most of them Sub-Saharan Africans).

By now, most of these refugees have left Tunisia. The majority returned to their countries of origin, not all of them really voluntarily. Some of them returned to Libya, where the rights of migrants are still being violated every day. Others tried to reach Europe by boat, risking their lives. About 2600 people were accepted by some European countries, the US, or Australia thanks to a so-called “resettlement program”. But states that took part in the war, like France and UK, allowed only one or two of these refugees to enter. As the participation in the war by NATO countries was justified with the purpose to protect civilians – which is for many reasons a doubtful argument, especially because wars always worsen the situation of normal people – it seems rather two-faced not to take responsibility for the fate of Sub-Saharan refugees, who are trapped in unbearable conditions as a direct result of NATO intervention. Continue reading „Forgotten in the Tunisian Desert?“